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A SERMON 



PEE ACHED AT THE OPENING OF THE 



NEW SABBATH-SCHOOL ROOMS, 



\tmx |3omt jpresbtiterian jpurrb, 



SABBATH MORNING, APRIL 7th ; 1872. 



BY THE PASTOR. 



Rev. WM. HOWELL TAYLOR. 



C. J. BARTRAM, PRINTER, 107 FULTON STREET. 




A SERMON 

PREACHED AT THE OPENING OF THE 

NEW SABBATH-SCHOOL ROOMS 

OF THE 

GREEN POINT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

NOBLE STREET, 

ON 

SABBATH MORNING, APRIL 7, 1872, 

BY THE PASTOR, 

REV. WILLIAM HOWELL TAYLO R. 




Xeto 3Torft: 

C. J. BARTRAM, 107 FULTON STREET. 
1872. 



Corregpcmtfttuc, 



Green Point, April 8, 1872. 



Rev. Wm, Howell Taylor : 

Dear Pastor : The undersigned, having listened with peculiar satisfaction 
and interest to your sermon of last Sabbath morning, on the occasion of the open- 
ing of the new Sabbath-School Rooms connected with our Church, would respect- 
fully solicit from you a copy for publication. We trust you will comply with 
our request, especially as the severe inclemency of the weather prevented 
many of the members of the congregation from being present on that occasion. 



Dear Brethren : 

If that spoken to you and not written for publication will afford you pleasure- 
in print, or inform others of the principles and the aims of the Church, it is 
most cheerfully at your disposal. 



Yours very truly, 



GEO. P. WILSON. 
T. L. BRAGAW, 
THOMAS BOWMAN, 
GEO. W. RODGRRS, 
J. N. STEARNS, 
C. J. BARTRAM, 
J. D. ARMSTRONG, 



CHAS. KENNEDY, 
GEO. BRINKERHOFF, 
RUSSELL KENNEDY, 
J. W, JARBOE, 
J. S. OGILVIEJ 
SAMUEL AKERLY, 
HENRY DIXON, and others. 



Sincerely, your friend and pastor, 



WM. HOWELL TAYLOR, 



SERMON. 



il Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and 
thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they 
may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the 
words of this law: and that their children, which have not known 
anything, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God." — Deui . 
xxxi. 12, 13. 



O-DAY we open for the first time this sanc- 



A tuary, that within its walls men, and women, 
and children may hear the Word of God, and 
learn to observe His law. Not the men, women, 
and children of this congregation only, but the 
" stranger," and " the children of them which 
have not known anything." We combine in this 
building a sanctuary for God's people, a place to 
welcome the stranger, and a Sabbath-school, in 
which not only the baptized children of the 
Church, but the children of those who neglect the 
privileges of God's house, and are as those, there- 
fore, who themselves "have not known." are to 
hear and learn. 

The worcis of Moses are not inappropriate 
words at this time, and to those who have built 
this house of God. That portion of Scripture in 
which we find the passage is full of promise, and 




6 



good cheer, and comfort. It predicts the restora- 
tion and ingathering of a scattered people : it 
declares that " the Lord will make them plen- 
teous in every work " ; reminds them that He M is 
their life n ; tells them to "be strong; and of good 
courage, and fear not : for the Lord, He it is that 
doth go before thee : He will not fail thee nor 
forsake thee " : and then commands, saving : 
" Gather the people together, men. and women, 
and children, and thy stranger that is within 
thy gates, that they may hear, and that 
they may learn, and fear the Lord your 
God, and observe to do ail the words of 
this law ; and that their children, which have 
not known anything, ma}' hear and learn to fear 
the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the 
land." 

It is. perhaps, unnecessary for me to state the 
origin and the history of this Presbyterian church. 
Our denomination, as such, has not been aggres- 
sive. It has watched the progress of its other 
Christian brethren, and, in the recognition of their 
excellence and their work for Christ, failed to pro- 
vide a Presbyterian home for those trained within 
the Presbyterian Church. The result has been 
that, without a rallying-point. those who came 
here Presbyterians have been scattered. They 
have been drawn into other folds, and now follow 
other flocks. Their substance and their strength 



7 



are given, not to the Church in which they were 
born again, and from which they drew their life, 
but to others which have no claim upon them but 
a common Lord. It is one thing to be sectarian 
and a bigot ; it is quite another to love and labor 
for our Mother Church. It is one thing to plant 
a church from a mere denominational feeling, and 
so weaken others ; it is quite another, in a strong 
and growing community in which every other de- 
nomination flourishes, to assert the right of the 
Presbyterian Church to live, that it may welcome 
Presbyterian strangers, and reclaim its own. 
These, lent to others until no longer needed, can 
be returned to us. Nor is it necessary that they 
should love others less, in order that they may love 
their own church more. 

It was with these views that a Committee of 
the Presbytery of Brooklyn, visiting this ground 
of March, 1S69, invited the attendance of those 
interested in, or friendly to, the organization of a 
Presbyterian church. This Committee consisted 
of Rev. J. D. Wells, D.D., Rev. B. F. Stead. 
D.D., Rev. J. H. Hopkins, ministers : and Ely 
Beard, W. M. Pierson, C. L. North, Elders of the 
Presbytery of Brooklyn. It is not surprising 
that, inwoven by their social ties, attached to 
other churches, and shrinking from the burden of 
a heavy work, from so many Presbyterians in 
this place but a few responded. Only twenty 



8 



gathered that first Sabbath in Masonic Hall. It 
was then perceived that it was time for the Pres- 
byterian Church to assert herself, and reclaim her 
people. On the nth of May a church was orga- 
nized. It consisted of but sixteen members. 
Ground was bought, and a temporary house of 
worship was erected. Eight thousand dollars was 
assumed by the Presbyterian churches of this 
city on conditions which were soon fulfilled. The 
present pastor was unanimously called, and the 
church, as a self-supporting church, from that 
period, has had steady progress. There have 
been no revival meetings and no extra service, 
yet not one communion has passed by without 
some additions. We have had a healthy, tranquil 
growth. We have had, in the first year, 79, in 
the second, 69, and in the third, 47 accessions. 
Of these, 71 were on profession, and 124 by letter, 
making 195 in all These things testify that 
" He is our life," and that to us, as to the Jews, 
there has been the " restoration and the gathering 
in of a scattered people." Of those with us in 
the beginning, some have gone. We have lost 
6 by death ; we have dismissed 1 7 to other Pres- 
byterian churches. None have left us but with the 
kindest feelings, and that member of this church 
is yet to come who will be the first to mar its 
harmony and its peace. 

The contributions to this work were, in the first 



9 



year, $7,459, in the second, $6,564, and in the 
third, .$13,880. I sa y " contributions," with the 
most grateful recollection of the fact that these 
were "free-will offerings/' given systematically 
and as the Lord hath prospered ; and that these 
rooms, beautiful and attractive, have been built 
upon the same principle which led the chosen 
people to do as God commanded, saying: "Take 
ye from among you an offering unto the Lord ; 
whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it." 
Not one dollar has been given through appeals to 
vanity, to appetite, or the passions. Profitable 
as they may be, we have had no fairs or festivals. 
We have hoped to train the men, the women, and 
the children of this church that to 4i give to God " 
was one thing, and to spend for the gratification 
of some selfish pleasure was another ; that it was 
not right for the Church to rob tradesmen of their 
profits, or compete with those who could ill afford 
to lose. God has prompted others to make large 
gifts to this church, and, as I believe, in answer 
to our trust in Him, and obedience to this scrip- 
tural way of giving. The results are here. Not 
simply in this building which we occupy prepara- 
tory to our entrance on the larger church — itself 
preparatory to our entering into "the house not 
made with hands " — but in this congregation, filled 
with a zeal for God, and gathered with a desire 
not only to " hear " and " learn," but to " do His 



10 



law." For what is a church ? Not a building, 
but a company of believers— God's professed peo- 
ple — those who love Him and His law, and who 
love the souls of those whom He came to save — 
who regard the building but as a means to a 
much greater end, or as an aid to a result — who 
look upon it as a mechanic looks upon his tools, 
or as the merchant on his office. It may be a 
polished tool, an attractive place ; but only that it 
may be the more effective, and may do the work. 
It may be admired, and yet we are not in our ad- 
miration to forget its object. This is the House 
of God, in which we are to " hear His law " and 
to be " laborers with Him." 

Let me say a word with reference to the hear- 
ing. " Take heed how ye hear ! " The design 
of the pulpit is the maintenance of sound doctrine 
— it is to teach and to admonish, to instruct in 
love, to reprove, rebuke, exhort ; preaching the 
"Word," and not shunning to declare all the 
counsel of God. It is predicted that " the time 
will come when men will not endure sound doc- 
trine, but shall turn away their ears from the 
truth, and shall be turned unto fables." But this 
must not affect the pulpit ; it must "preach the 
Word!' " Son of man," says God, " thou shalt 
speak My words unto them, whether they will 
hear or whether they will forbear." " Take 
heed," therefore, my dear friends, " how ye hear/* 



i i 

and " Prepare to meet thy God,"* as the one to 
whom we are accountable, not only for the words 
we speak, but for the words we hear, for there 
are those upon whom the Word of God falls light- 
ly ; they are not affected by the remembrance of 
its authority or of its deep solemnity ; the most 
pungent truths and the plainest exposition of the 
divine law produce slight results. There are 
others who are not content to neglect the law or 
reject the truth — they oppose the Word! It is 
not uncommon for God's servants to meet oppo- 
sition. The world declares that he must not 
speak these unpalatable truths ; that he must say 
nothing of hell and the judgment ; that he must 
praise men, and not wound their vanity ; that he 
must not 4 f : rebuke " ; and the Church sometimes 
chimes in from mere worldly policy, from indiffer- 
ence, or from a wish to appease the godless rich, 
or attract some influential worldling. Thus they 
gag the pulpit (if it is timid), or drive him away 
who has a conscientious and a fearless speech. I 
thank Him who rules your hearts that in this 
church it has not been so. " I have not shunned 
to declare unto you all the counsel of God." 
None have tried to repress the truth. It has been 
spoken freely, and, I trust, in love. It has been 
received kindly, and as the " Word of God." And 
this leads me to believe that as those who " search 

*Texts written above the pulpit. 



the Scriptures " and who kk hear the law " — that you 
gather here, men, women, and children, not mere- 
ly to "hear," and not only to " learn/' but to ''ob- 
serve to do the law." 

We read of the early Church, that they not 
only held fast to the form of sound words which 
they had heard in faith and love, but " continued 
steadfast " in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, 
and in prayers. If we "hear the Word," we 
shall study the peace and unity of the Church, 
bear one another's burdens, and, as the apostle 
tells us, " so fulfill the law of Christ." If we keep 
the law, we shall love our neighbor, injure no 
one, be just in all our dealings, entertain no ma- 
lice, avoid envy, strife and slander, and live in 
charity and good-will with all. It should be our 
duty and our privilege to give freely, that we may 
spread the Gospel, and, according to our ability, 
be found faithful in co-operation with our Lord 
and Master. ' l For we are laborers together with 
God." No human agency can, of itself, do this 
work. In the combination of our labor with the 
divine blessing, the result is reached. God works 
with us, and works in us, and works through us. 
It is no ligfht thing- to be thus united with that 
Power which controls the world. It is a delight- 
ful yet responsible position. It should exalt our 
thoughts ; it should make us grander, nobler ; we 
should walk as those who are taking part in eter- 



13 



nal plans. There is a dignity and glory in thus 
living, and thus working, as for God. He has a 
use for us/ In the planting and the gathering 
of this Church, in the bestowal of His Spirit, in 
the field before us, in the enlarged opportunity 
for effective labor, in our rapid growth, in our 
unity and zeal, in this building which we enter 
free of debt in all these manifestations of His 
presence and approval, we may recognize His 
call to yet larger duties and yet nobler work. 
/'Come up higher," " thou hast been faithful over 
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things." As God spoke to Israel, so does He speak 
to us : " The Lord thy God will make thee plen- 
teous in every work " — " that thou mayest live 
and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless 
thee" — 4< that thou mayest love the Lord, and 
that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou 
mayest cleave to Him, for He is thy life." 

" Gather the people together, men, women, and 
children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, 
that they may hear, and that they may learn, and 
fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the 
words of this law: and that their children, which 
have not known anything, may hear and learn." 
And this brings us to the field before us. 

It is a large field — not yet reached by our < (Torts, 
nor by that evangelizing influence which is nut 
forth by our Christian brethren. With a ( Dutch) 



l 4 



Reformed church, with an Episcopal church and 
its Mission, with two large Methodist churches, 
and two Baptist churches with their Missions, 
with a branch of the Welsh church, with a Lu- 
theran church, a Christian church, a Universalist, 
and a Roman Catholic church, there are many 
still who are " strangers/' we may say, to any 
church. Not a small proportion of those with 
whom I have been brought in contact, as a Pres- 
byterian pastor, have admitted an entire absence 
from the house of God, or an attendance so rare 
that it becomes a virtual absence from these 
Christian gatherings. The families who have 
called upon me in their affliction, or for funeral 
service, who were not connected with this or with 
any church, would, if they were present, nil the 
house. Are not these " the strangers who are 
within our gates/' whom we are to gather, that 
" they may hear," and that " they may learn/' and 
" observe to do the law " ? This is not to be done 
by one man, but by all ; not by the pastor only, 
but by the Church of God ; as those interested in 
the care of souls ; as those glad to feel that this 
work is theirs. To their cry, " Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do ? " there is a present answer : 
"Love your neighbor as yourself 1 '; win these 
souls to Christ ; gather in these strangers to the 
house of God, and, when there, let them be, 
through your warmth and love, no longer ki stran- 



gets." Let there be less stiffness, and formality, 
and ceremony, in the house of God ; more atten- 
tion to Christ's precepts, and less attention to the 
etiquette of the world. Let life's distinctions 
vanish in this place of worship. Let the rich 
and poor meet together, in the forgetfulness of all 
things save that we may be the " sons of God." 

" My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of 
persons ; for, if there come unto your assembly a 
man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and 
there come in also a poor man in vile raiment ; 
and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay 
clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here* in a 
good place ; and say to the poor, Stand thou 
there, or sit here under my footstool : are ye not 
then partial in yourselves ? Hearken, my be- 
loved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor in 
this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom 
which He hath promised to them that love Him ?" 

If our entrance into this line building" fosters 
pride, or makes the poor less welcome ; if it shall 
take away our eagerness to gather strangers, or 
render us less cordial to them when we have 
drawn them here ; if it should make us more dis- 
tant to each other, and more attentive to the 
devil's teaching than to our Lord and Masters ; 
if, in the mysterious providence of God, or to re- 
buke and chasten, He should permit us 10 become 



i6 



that most contradictory and abominable of per- 
verted things, a " worldly church/' where the 
people gather, not to worship God, but to display 
themselves; where frivolity, and gossip, and "so- 
ciety M are the leading features ; where the Spirit 
of Christ does not dwell, and where men are 
respected not for what they are, but for what they 
own ; where souls are at a discount ; where the 
music is of more importance than the " Word of 
God/' and- externals take the place of heartfelt 
and sincere worship in the house of God — should 
our entrance into this line building- bring" a curse 
like this, it would have been better for our souls, 
for God's kingdom, and for the good of others, 
had we never moved. Better an humble church, 
with God's blessing, than the proudest temple 
which man ever built, with God's face averted or 
God's grace withdrawn. Let His house be beau- 
tiful, but mav His glory fill it, and may we not 
forget to worship Him in the "beauty of holi- 
ness" For, if we expect to " gather strangers, 1 ' 
we must exalt the Lord ; we must, as a church, 
exemplify the teachings of Christ's spirit. And 
Ave are to gather those who " have never learned," 
and to such we are to speak in a gentle and at- 
tractive manner; they are to be won by our hu- 
mility, and tenderness, and love ; and by our mani- 
festation of a Christian interest they are to be 
taught what God is, what they need, and what 



17 



Christ has offered. And we are to gather other 
" strangers/' who once knew, but are now wan- 
derers from religious truth. To such we are to 
state the crime of negligence, and arouse their 
torpid conscience, for " they know their duty, yet 
they do it not." We are to warn such, and re- 
mind such — not in anger, but in sorrow — that " it 
had been better for them not to have known the 
way of righteousness, than, after they had known 
it, to turn from the holy commandment which was 
delivered to them." We are to gather the igno 
rant and the hardened, the indifferent and the 
careless, the deceived and the moralist, the timid 
and the desponding — we are to gather all who, 
from any cause, are " strangers " to God's house 
and to His law and love, that they may "learn 
His Word,'' and may "observe to do His law." 
But we are to gather together more than the 
"men, and the women," and these "strangers" 
that are within our gates or within our bounds. 
We are to either the " children," too. They are 
included, and not in the generic word "people." 
but as " children/' and this twice — first as the 
children of the Church, and then as " their chil- 
dren, which have not knovn anything/' or. in other 
words, as the children of those who are them- 
selves i or no rant of Gods Word and truth, and, as 
parents, are neglecters of the privilege of attend- 
ance on a Christian church. For the children s 



i 8 



sake, we have built this portion of the house of 
God. It has been arranged with especial refer- 
ence to their comfort and their pleasure. This is 
not the " church/' for that is yet to be built. It 
is the school, and we must bear in mind the diffi- 
culties of an arrangement which combines the 
two. It was not thought best to sacrifice the 
Sunday-school to the church, but to make one 
complete, in anticipation of our removal soon to 
the other. With this thought in view, we can 
endure some infelicities of arrangement, and 
submit to those things which are inconve- 
nient to us as a congregation, for our chil- 
dren s sake. In this house, by God's blessing, 
we are to train them in the study of this holy 
book. Here they are "to learn," "to observe to 
do the words of this law." From this room, 
made so bright and attractive, we may hope that 
they will follow us, their parents, into the room 
beyond. There is peculiar safety in the piety of 
youth. Time may bring other things to their 
notice, the pleasures and temptations of the world 
may be spread before them, but, with an early piety, 
and with a pleasant recollection of the house of 
God, there will be less disposition to wander 
from the truth, and less danger to the soul from 
this world's allurements. Purity, and faith, and 
love, are best seen in those who remember their 
Creator in the days of youth, and lay hold on 



19 



God before bad habits have been formed which 
lay hold on them ; for even the grace of God 
does not accomplish that with one who is worn in 
sin, grooved and moulded through wrong teaching 
and by an evil life, which it can effect with one as 
fresh and unbiassed as a little child. 

Such are dear to God. "Take heed," says our 
Saviour, " that ye despise not one of these little 
ones." They are not only immortal and impres- 
sible, but their future possibilities — that which 
they may be — make them of great worth and of 
great interest to the church of God. Said Michael 
Angelo, as he looked upon a piece of marble, 
"There is an angel in it." His quick eye saw 
that which could be developed from it, as the eye 
of the Church should perceive that which may be 
developed from some little child, 

And we have a duty to them. First, to the 
baptized children. They are a part of the Church ; 
they have been received by its covenant, they 
have a claim on its care. "The Church," says 
our Confession of Faith, "consists of those that 
profess the true religion, together with their chil- 
dren" " Children born within the pale of the 
Church, and dedicated to God in baptism, are 
under the inspection and government ot the 
Church." It becomes its solemn duty to teach 
them, and "teaching" is its 44 vocation." We 
find this from historical evidence, "There is no 



20 



doubt," says the historian Mosheim, " that the 
children of Christians were carefully trained up 
from their infancy, and were early put to reading 
the sacred books, and learning the principles of 
religion. For this purpose, schools were created 
every where from the beginning." We learn of the 
schools of Alexandria, Rome, Caesarea, Antioch, 
and of other places, " kept in churches, or in 
buildings which adjoined the church." 

Female catechists were employed to instruct 
the young of their own sex in religious truth. 
Jerome speaks of Origen, as teaching the Chris- 
tian faith to the concourse of youth who flocked 
to hear him. Some of the most learned and 
prominent men compiled catechisms for the in- 
struction of children ; and nothing can better prove 
the extension and activity of this department of 
Christian labor, than an edict ol the apostate 
Emperor Julian, which forbade Christians from 
teaching in schools. In the early part of the 
fourth century, Gregory set up schools in every 
city, to teach the children to read the Bible. Pre- 
vious Councils, and, in the eighth century, Char- 
lemagne, set up similar schools. His " Capitu- 
laria" required catechetical instruction, and in the 
" popular language." And during the dark 
period of the history of the Church, the Culdees 
of Iona — the ancient Presbyterians of Scotland — 
associated religion with learning, and exerted an 



influence through their schools which will be felt 
for ever. 

Bancroft says of Calvin, that he "was the 
father of popular education, and the inventor of 
the system of free schools/' For it was Calvin 
who devised and established a system of Christian 
education in the Republic of Geneva, in which 
the Church selected the teachers. John Knox, 
who, in the providence of God, was an exile from 
Scotland, and at that time at Geneva, on his 
return to Scotland, in 1559, took measures to 
establish throughout that country a system of 
these church -schools, having, as the preamble 
states, their object " in the godly up -bringing of 
the youth of the realm." "Put up," said the 
great reformer, kk the church with the school." 

Where the church is a teacher, there religion is 
flourishing*. Where she has realized her responsi- 
bility, and has felt herself bound to see that the 
education of her children took a wider range than 
a preparation for the duties of this life, she has 
exalted the truth and has obeyed the Master. To 
her schools we may trace that religious learning 
which we have to-day. It came from the care of 
the church of Christ over her baptized children. 
She felt that responsibility for them which, I trust, 
we feel. 

There is another class, however, to which we 
must call your attention. " Gather," says the 



22 



Word of God, " the people together, men, 
women, and children, and thy stranger that is 
within thy gates, that they may hear, and that 
they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, 
and observe to do all the words of this law: 
and that their children, which have not known 
anything, may hear and learn/' God for- 
bid that, in our love for our own children, 
and in our natural preference for them, we 
should forget the rest ! They have precious souls, 
and, as a Christian church, we should love them, 
and be filled with the spirit of him who cried, 
" Give me souls, or I die !" or with the spirit of 
One higher still, who, for that great love where- 
with He loved us, died on Calvary. It was 
Christ who said — not of your children or of my 
children, but of the ''little ones": " Suffer them 
to come unto me, and forbid them not." The 
same reasons which should lead to the gathering 
in of the stranger, press more forcibly upon us 
in the gathering in of the children of the stran- 
ger. Their number and their plastic nature, the 
influence which they will exert upon the future, 
their intellectual and moral value to the Church, 
and their worth to God, make no effort too labori- 
ous, and no expenditure too great, if, as a result, 
we may mould this vast material into a useful 
shape, and may save their souls. The Church 
will not discharge its duty to them, to itself, or to 



23 



Christ the Lord, until she has put forth her 
utmost efforts to reach, to win, and to instruct 
these children, who are not her own — not hers, 
at least in the sense of covenant rights and bap- 
tismal vows — and yet dear to her as immortal 
beings and as human souls. 

Of these children of the stranger to the house 
of God, we find two classes : Those whose 
parents are not pious, and yet prosperous ; who 
are respectable and moral, and yet worldly-minded. 
They restrain their children from all grosser forms 
of sin, yet neglect to give them any religious 
training. Like Galileo, "they care for none of 
these things" for themselves, yet are not unwill- 
ing that they should be taught by others to their 
"little ones." They contribute to its support, 
they recognize the beauty and importance of the 
Gospel, yet themselves are hard, and callous, and 
indifferent. With some, perhaps, it is a pre- 
ference of the pleasure of sin for a season. They 
hope to die Christians, though they live for the 
world. 

In addition to this class, we have the children 
of the corrupt, of the vicious, and the impover- 
ished. They are not restrained at home, they 
are abused. They are surrounded by evil influ- 
ences, and of the vilest kind. They come here 
not through parental influence, but from the 
promptings of their own heart, as an escape from 



24 



home. The brightest place on earth to them is 
their Sabbath-school. It is a fairy-land, where 
the words of love — the beautiful words of the 
Gospel — the sound of music, the bright colors, 
the gay banners, and the tender glances which 
they meet from gentle eyes, make this heaven, 
and are to their infant souls a revelation. 

And who grudges cost? It is worth all that 
you have given, to have made them happy ; to 
have planted in their youthful hearts associations 
with the Church, and God, and religion, which are 
pleasant : to give them thoughts connected with 
the Gospel which will win them to it. Deprived 
by birth of improving influences, is there 
any way bv which they can be better brought 
within their reach than bv gathering in these 
children into a Sabbath home ? The more 
wretched the life, the more striking the contrast, 
the more total the neglect of the parent during 
the six days of the week, the more important is 
the obligation of the Church to make the seventh 
" blessed/' and to spare no pains or money to 
remedy, so far as possible, the ignorance and the 
misery which are the result of sin. 

We have tried to do it, and this building, the 
result of self-denial and of effort, beautified by 
these generous gifts and by loving hands, is a 
monument of our love to Christ, and a testimonial 
of our care for souls. Let us not rest here. It is 



25 



but the beginning — and the eves of the world arc 
upon us. We are not now to enjoy by resting. 
While one soul remains unfathered into this 
house — while one child wanders untaught in our 
lanes or streets — while one sinner is to be re- 
claimed to God, let none speak of resting. We 
are a working- people, working not for ourselves, 
but for Him who saved us. 

In the prosperity of the past we should find an 
incentive to the future. For us, now, it requires 
less faith to look forward to the completion of our 
building than it did at first, and He who has 
raised up friends for us in the past will be with us 
still if we work for Him. We are to five for God 
— we are to build for God — we are to seek for 
souls — we are to trust in Him. ;> Be not weary in 
well-doing ; for in due season ye shall reap, if ye 
faint not." kk The Lord will make thee plenteous 
in every work." " He is thy life. Be strong 
and of good courage, and fear not: for the Lord, 
He it is that doth go before thee. He will not 
fail thee nor forsake thee." Therefore, " gather the 
people together, men, and women, and children, 
and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that 
they ma}* hear, and that the}* may learn, and fear 
the Lord your God,, and observe to do all the 
words of this law : and that their children, which 
have not known anything, may hear, and learn 
fear the Lord your God." 



J 



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